Samuel Bjørk
The Owl Always Hunts at Night

A teenage girl has gone missing from the youth home where she lived along with a number of other troubled teens. She is found murdered in a ritualistic manner and Oslo’s homicide unit, led by veteran investigator Holger Munch, is put on the case. Star investigator Mia Krüger is still struggling with suicidal thoughts and her addiction to pills and alcohol – diving headfirst into the gruesome case is not making her any more stable. Mia still dreams of her twin sister Sigrid, whose death of a heroine overdose ten years earlier continues to haunt her. But what really happened to Sigrid?

The murder investigation is leading nowhere when a mysterious hacker suddenly contacts the team’s computer nerd, Gabriel Mørk, and shows him a very disturbing film that reveals new details about the fate of the murdered girl. At the periphery of the film we see the contours of the killer dressed as an owl, the bird of death…

Meanwhile, Munch’s daughter Miriam is going through an emotional crisis. She questions the life she has chosen as the loyal partner to a workaholic doctor and the responsible mother of a young daughter. What happened to her passionate, politically engaged youth? When she meets an intriguing young man with a strong activist agenda, she finds herself drawn into a romantic affair that will lead her into the path of a very sick mind.

Told in short, compelling chapters that alternate between several perspectives, Bjork creates a unique, twisting, unsettling thriller that really epitomises the phrase ’page-turner’. [...] there is very little to fault in this Nordic crime thriller par excellence.

The Irish News, UK

In The Owl Always Hunts at Night, Frode Sander Øien demonstrates that he has become a skillful international suspense writer. […] The story may stay within a few miles of the Oslo area, but rises up to an international level.

Adresseavisen, Norway

Norway’s most famous artwork is Edvard Munch’s The Scream and Norwegian author Samuel Bjørk gives Jo Nesbø a run for his money in conveying the pain and rage beneath the country’s placid surface. [...] The plot is competently handled but the brilliantly drawn angsty sleuths kept me hooked.

The Daily Express, UK

Bjørk can still write, The Owl Always Hunts at Night is undeniably tighter than I’m Traveling Alone, and the ending is so thrilling that you want to read it in one sitting.

De Volkskrant, Netherlands

Expertly paced and thoughtfully plotted, The Owl Always Hunts at Night will leave you shaken to your core.

Bustle, US

Raw, psychological, disturbing. The Owl Always Hunts at Night, the new thriller by Samuel Bjork, is one of those reads you just can’t stop thinking about … a great thriller, a novel that leaves you with a sense of confusion and anxiety, a discomfort because of what humanity is capable of.

Il Giallista, Italy

Samuel Bjørk

Samuel Bjørk
MAFRA/Jan Kubíček

Samuel Bjørk is the pen name of Norwegian novelist, playwright and singer/songwriter Frode Sander Øien. He wrote his first stageplay at the age of twenty-one and then went on to write two highly acclaimed literary novels, Pepsi Love (2001) and Speed for Breakfast (2009). The self-taught, media-shy artist has also released six albums, written five plays, showed contemporary art pieces in various galleries and translated Shakespeare.

When the first installment in the Mia and Munch Series, I’m Traveling Alone, was published in Norway in 2013, it stunned readers and critics alike and was nominated for the Norwegian Booksellers’ Award. It sold to 30 countries and became an instant international bestseller.

Samuel Bjørk has been compared to the likes of both Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbø, and has proved himself to be a force to be reckoned with in the crime genre.

He currently lives and works in Trondheim, Norway.

Rights sold to

Croatia, Znanje
Czech Republic, Plus
Denmark, Rosinante
Estonia, Eesti Raamat
Finland, Otava
France, JC Lattès
Germany, Goldmann
Greece, Dioptra
Hungary, Athenaeum
Iceland, Bjartur
Israel, Armchair
Italy, Longanesi
Japan, Discover21
Korea, Taurus
Latvia, Jumava
Lithuania, Alma Littera
Netherlands, Luitingh-Sijthoff
Norway, Vigmostad & Bjørke
Poland, Sonia Draga
Romania, Editura RAO
Russia, AST Publishers
Slovakia, Ikar
Slovenia, Ucila
Spain, Suma
Sweden, Wahlström & Widstrand
Turkey, Pegasus
UK, Transworld
US (including Canada), Viking
Vietnam, Nah Nam

Other titles

I'm Traveling Alone
The Boy in the Headlights

Foreign rights

Ahlander Agency
Svartensgatan 4
116 20 Stockholm, Sweden

Tel: +46 8 27 54 55
[email protected]
www.ahlanderagency.com

Awards

‘Best Thriller of the Year’ - Hebban Award 2016, Netherlands
Shortlisted for the 2015 Norwegian Booksellers’ Award

Edited September 17, 2019 by Ahlander Agency AB